Tag: Career

How a Business Analyst can add value to an Education Technology Organization

Written by Amita Arora on May 13, 2021. Posted in Articles.

We are currently amid a technology revolution in the field of education.

It is such an important new era where the amalgamation of technology and education has grown exponentially, especially in the last year as we deal with Covid19. While educational institutions are spending more and more on Education Technology products, the goal remains the same- to enhance and enrich the learning experience. EdTech, the more widely used acronym for education technology, encompasses the use of various technologies for imparting knowledge. Over the past few years several technology firms have ventured in this field, targeting mainly the space of digital training for employees, adult students, and professionals. These were mainly individuals who wanted to give their careers an edge in the competitive environment.

With a pandemic changing the dynamics of education, EdTech has become an essential for each household across the world. Now, not only adults but children at all levels of education, not just limited to K-12, need various tools and products to learn and grow every day.

This has not only given the spotlight to the technology companies but also given a new dimension to the role of Business Analyst (BA), who usually perform a wide range of activities. It is a role where one’s perception cannot be tied to a particular domain. Business Analysts gladly wear multiple hats, and several times land up in the eye of the storm. In terms of the EdTech field, a business analyst is once again as much aligned to the business teams in an organization as they are aligned to the technology teams.

There are a few points that need to be kept in mind when we look at the above diagram. They are as below:

How BA aligns with the Business team?

A BA with strong analytical and communication skills, aligns with the Business team to understand the main motivation behind the project. In more technical terms, we refer to them as someone who translates business needs into operational requirements. They also document and maintain business rules. In the EdTech environment, the business team stakeholders can be the university or school board members, department heads, or even startup founders.

How BA aligns with the Technology team?

This is an important aspect of the roles and duties of a BA. They not only define, organize, maintain, and deliver functional and data requirements, but also use the business and product requirements to help build out technical specifications. They collaborate with various members of the technical teams like product owners, designers, developers, QA teams, and product release teams. Each of these stakeholders need the business analyst for not only defining the user stories, but also providing a dynamic perspective to the ever-changing requirements.

How BA aligns with the End-Users?

A BA not only helps to define the user’s needs, but also recommends solutions to fulfil the user-centered goals. They actively engage with teachers and students to develop requirements, carefully assessing their needs and challenges. User acceptance testing is an important task of a BA.

How BA aligns with the Marketing team?

In collaboration with the sales and marketing teams, a BA, actively participates in the building of a product marketing plan to not only support the commercialization and product placement plan, but also align it to the needs of the customer and help identifying the target market.

Traditional Business Role Vs Diverse Business Analysis Role

EdTech companies are always on the lookout for Business Analysts to grow their technology teams. These companies are constantly creating new EdTech products thus, require motivated teams to work on those. Traditionally, Business Analysts have a set number of tasks they used to handle on a day-to-day basis. But nowadays, the role has evolved into something bigger. When we look at the new industries, making use of emerging technologies, for example, in the space of education technology, the role of a business analyst has newer responsibilities in addition to the traditional ones. The interesting thing about this phenomenon is some of these responsibilities or tasks were earlier handled by other roles, but now have seamlessly merged into this one role.

Business Analysis – Revolutionizing Diverse EdTech Domain Spectrums

As mentioned earlier, traditional business analysis roles have had specific set of responsibilities as defined above, in Figure 2. But nowadays, there are several roles that have evolved from the original one, making business analysis more and more dynamic than ever before and more conducive to the everyday demands of rapidly progressive industries like EdTech.

Business Intelligence Analyst aligns and collaborates with various analytics to present customizable data for business teams. In addition, this role is vital in helping everyone in the project team to understand their data needs and collaborate with different divisions within the organization, providing them with data solutions.

Business Operations Analyst is another data centric role, mostly responsible for ensuring organization’s data integrity and use the internal data to track the progress and drawbacks in the day to day functioning of the organization. They collaborate with Data teams for development of various reporting tools that help the organization draw blueprints for overall success and growth.

Enterprise Business Analyst collaborates with stakeholders in enterprise sales as well as account management. They also work closely with customer teams to ensure there are no gaps in the relationship between the organization and their clients.

Looking at the various ways a business analyst can contribute to the success of an EdTech organization, it is imperative for organizations to utilize their valuable inputs and use their knowledge to optimum potential.

4 Common mistakes made when looking for your first Business Analyst job

Written by Paul Benn on May 12, 2021. Posted in Articles.

Often when I coach Business Analysts to land their first Business Analysis Job, I find that either they have no strategy and just throw darts and hope one of them hits the bullseye, or that they make some serious errors in how they approach it.

Darts does sometimes work, but not always (read my e-book on 13 strategies for your first Business Analysis Job) and if you do the following errors then it takes just as much wasted effort.

Let’s look at some of the common errors I see:

1. Don’t have a plan or strategy

Many prospective candidates who want to break into Business Analysis don’t have a strategy or plan. They send their CVs out to every job ad that mentions Business Analysis.

The first thing I look for when I get CVs for job ads is if the person takes the time to match his/her skills and CV to the position they are applying for.

A successful business strategy comes down to the following. First, what are your goals? Getting a job as a Business Analyst isn’t a SMART goal.

If we think of SMART then it comes to the A – achievable ask yourself is this achievable i.e. are you accountable for it.

I think it is important to have a goal you are accountable to achieve, no one else. Getting a job isn’t entirely in your control, is it? Someone else has to agree to it, and you don’t have that authority.

An appropriate goal would be something like:

“I will engage at least x recruiters per week with my CV”, or

“I will spend at least x hours a week looking for Business Analysis jobs that match my skill set”.

So let’s test those two through SMART:

S (Specific) – Yes, I am specific about what I wish to achieve.

M (Measurable) – Yes, I can measure how many

A (Achievable) – Yes, because I am responsible for them.

R(Realistic) – Yes, I can do either one.

T (Timeous) – They follow a schedule

2. Your Resume or CV makes you sound like you know you know what a Business Does – not that you can do the job

When receiving a CV, I also look at it to determine if it seems like the person has a good understanding of what a Business Analyst does and if their experiences on the CV reflect that.

You don’t have to actually work as a Business Analyst to have real Business Analysis experience. You can have it regardless of what you do.

So I am looking at the title. Even the BABOK 3.0 says it is not about the title but the tasks when defining what a Business Analyst is.

It is the skills, the experiences, and the tasks and related activities that a candidate performed in that role that speak to their understanding of a Business Analyst, and that even the candidate can recognize the tasks they have performed that are applicable to a Business Analyst.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to an employer and they told me about how many CVs they are rejecting just because the CV does not position a candidate with relevant Business Analysis task experience.

3. Your CV must speak the language of the job you’re applying for.

You putting job before experience and not experience before job

A few days ago I was coaching a client who wanted to become a Business Analyst. They are in a non-Business Analyst role. I was trying to find out how much experience they have in tasks related to Business Analysis.

I asked what I could do to fill the gaps of experience. He said there are none and I will wait until I have a Business Analysis job to acquire the experience.

Here is the problem. Employers value experience. It is no different in any job application. Even doctors have to go through a community service program before they are allowed as practicing doctors.

You must embrace it, so think about how you can gain relevant experience at your current location.

I love the saying “We grow into opportunity”. Apply the skills now and learn, gain experience, and reflect that on your CV. Then the opportunity will come.

4. Focus on Certification

As a member of the IIBA, and CBAP certified individual, you are probably raising your eyebrows. Let me explain.

Certifying yourself is one good way to learn about Business Analysis, gain accreditation with peers, and boost your confidence. Yes, it does play a role in getting a job.

However, for an entrant in Business Analysis you must understand that employers want experience foremost. A certification doesn’t give you that. Just like a degree doesn’t give experience, it gives knowledge.

Do the certification to gain knowledge that you can apply to gain experience. Back to having the right goals again.

You need to put in the time and have SMART goals that you can achieve. Then, your strategy flows from there. It’s not an overnight thing either. Work at it, and adjust your strategy as you go.

When you have worked hard for your first opportunity, it will come.

For more strategies download my free e-book “13 strategies to getting your first Business Analysis job” – https://www.altitudejourney.com/ba-career-starter

Breaking Through the Stakeholder Surface

Written by Kristen Gandier on April 21, 2021. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Breaking Through the Stakeholder Surface

The Stakeholder Blueprint

Stakeholders are an important component of the business ecosystem, and especially important to initiatives, as they include any individual person or group that has any sort of connection to the business need or change at hand. Stakeholders can have a straight-forward connection to the initiative, or be a more complex and challenging piece. Stakeholders are not always the person or group with the easiest road of access, and overcoming challenges and barriers with stakeholders can build trust and facilitate meaningful business relationships and engagement.

Speaking the language of stakeholders is about understanding not only what is obviously promoted and agreed, but also about listening to what is not said. Within stakeholder silence can be hesitation, but it could also be unspoken agreement and support, or even untapped input. Not all stakeholders speak the same language, and it may depend on the initiative and accompanying environment. Understanding environment is important, as well as having self awareness to ensure no assumptions are made on perception of stakeholders.

Everyone knows the phrase, “watch out for those quiet ones”. In the landscape of stakeholders, it is not always a reliable approach to accept the loud voices of support as loyal, and the quiet ones as adversity. Understanding different communication needs can help to elicit not only requirements, but important business information to help with the initiative. This means not only thinking, but also performing and prioritizing outside of the box.

The Unlikely Mentor

Within stakeholder groups, there could be many different types of business relationships. Mentors can come in all shapes and at all career milestones. You may have spent some time focusing on one particular area of your organizational structure to find a mentor, only to happen upon your best ambassador and catalyst of growth from an unexpected network connection.

Mentoring as a professional input has changed over the years, and no longer is represented by the one-dimensional approach of an employee with seasoned expertise providing wisdom to a junior, within a specific organizational facet. Mentoring can be from one or many blended sources, allowing the optimal blend of experience, perspectives and advice to inspire multi-directionally. It is no longer the formal, stuffy documented professional connection and more modernly exists in a fluid, dynamic environment that fits more to the organic professional environment and multiple avenues of existing career paths.

Cohesion and the Business Need

Mapping stakeholder personas is an important Business Analysis technique in identifying specific sources, decisions and choices for involvement to the initiative. Keeping touchpoints open and approaches objective helps to elicit valuable information for projects and maintain a team’s engagement and value.

When leading teams through initiatives and keeping communication central, there may be times when information is not always easy to unpack. Depending on the initiative, challenging group conversations about outcomes may come up time-to-time, such as the sometimes “unpopular” outcomes of:

Doing Nothing
Accepting sunk cost

These outcomes can divide stakeholders, make some nervous, and may even inspire a reaction to perceived setbacks, even if they are indeed the best options. With the right communication though, these may actually allow for important reconfigurations for stakeholders to find a new perspective. That environment of honesty and trust can directly impact another future initiative, or even exist in understanding business needs, and how something such as “doing nothing” may prevent loss from continuing to pursue an initiative that delivers low-value.

Keeping stakeholders informed and direction honest can:

Enhance elicited information
Build trust
Create better business relationships
Solidify cohesion in the delivery of any outcome

When the team has the same view, the road to travel there is easier.

Three years at university and all I got was this piece of paper: Tips to land your first Business Analyst job when you don’t have practical experience

Written by Joyce Wong on April 8, 2021. Posted in Articles.

You’ve just graduated from your degree at university and after 2 months of job search you’ve finally landed your first gig as a team member in an IT team!

After settling into the role, you start to notice all the IT jobs you read about during your degree on display at your company and start putting the pieces together on where these roles fit in the IT department: Software Developer, Database Administrator, Quality Assurance Tester, the list goes on.

You then notice there is someone with the title of “Business Analyst”. They seem to know quite a few people, understand what the company does, have a logical explanation for most things and just generally seem to know what they are talking about. This intrigues you. What exactly does a Business Analyst do?

You think back about what your IT degree course covered and don’t remember any specific subjects that thoroughly covered business analysis or being a business analyst and when your lecturer or tutor mentioned it, it was abstract at best. You figure you have to do a bit more research about this role and do some light reading on what the responsibilities of a business analyst are and characteristics they need to possess:

Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving
Behavioural Characteristics (Ethics, Personal Organization, Trustworthiness)
Business Knowledge
Communication Skills
Interaction Skills
Software Applications

After a self-assessment you feel you have a reasonable fit and potential in terms of underlying competencies. There are some obvious areas for improvement and gaps that would hopefully be filled over time, but overall, the business analyst role still interested you and made you ponder a little more. What type of work experience does one need to land a business analyst job?

You read through job postings on various sites and a feel little disheartened when you see what the typical requirements are to be considered for a business analyst role.

Business Analyst – Permanent Opportunity

Awesome job opportunity in funky brand-new CBD offices! Work with cutting-edge technologies and our international team and stakeholders!

Experience Needed:

Experience with Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid methodologies
Exposure to Scrum and working within Scrum teams
Exceptional ability to negotiate and influence stakeholders with highly developed interpersonal and written communication skills
Strong communication skills and ability to negotiate with and influence senior level management
At least 3 years working as a business analyst in project environments

You ask yourself how one would get a look in at such a role with zero direct experience. There must be a way though, otherwise how do people even get these roles in the first place?

Good question. Not a unique question though, in fact the truth is that quite a few career business analysts would have had this challenge in landing their very first business analyst role. There are however some avenues to start from which this article will try to shed some light on.

Become a subject matter expert

Your current role can be used as a pathway to becoming a business analyst. For example, often in a role you will have an opportunity to be a subject matter expert in a particular system, who uses the system, and maybe also an understanding of the business processes surrounding the system.

When a business analyst role opens up in your organisation either permanently or on a temporary basis you can then use your knowledge as a selling point to the hiring manager. Sometimes projects also do not have the time luxury of going through a hiring process and would prefer to onboard someone who already has subject matter expertise in a process or system and are happy to train up that team member to produce the required deliverables.

Obtain some project experience

Let your manager or network of contacts within the organisation know that you are interested in working on projects happening in the organisation, particularly those that will allow you to perform activity where you obtain requirements from a user or stakeholder, perform requirements analysis, document the requirements and deliver a solution to meet the requirement. You might not have an opportunity to do all, but each activity alone will display your application of essential business analysis skills so it’s a start and resume-worthy. Remember to obtain peer or manager feedback on your work so you also know where you may need to improve in the future.

Spend time doing further study

Commit time outside of work to build upon your skillset and establish a foundation to be a great business analyst:

Attend training courses to help develop your soft skills – for example, Presentation Skills, Influencing, Negotiation, Conflict Resolution
Learn about Business Process Modelling, User Story and Document Writing
Gain an understanding of methodologies and frameworks and when and where they are best applied – e.g., Scrum, Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid
Seek out business analyst and project management journals on the internet which have a wealth of articles on topics related to the business analysis profession. Many are written by business analysts so are also a great way to gain an insight to what type of work business analysts can be involved in and how they approach it
Read about current and emerging technology trends via business and technology journals/newspapers. Some examples are:
- CIO – https://www.cio.com/
- TechRepublic – https://www.techrepublic.com/
- IT Brief – https://itbrief.com.au/

Formalise your business analysis skills

If you are spending a reasonable amount of time studying topics related to the business analyst profession why not go that one step further and formalise your learnings by obtaining a recognized certification that can be added to your resume?

Certifications recommended here are offered by leading examination bodies, will not need hundreds of hours of prior experience, and can be prepared for via self-study only (no expensive courses required). Exam fees are approximate as at time of the writing of this article.

IIBA, Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA):
- Prerequisites: 21 professional development hours within last four years
- Approximate cost: USD$295, non-member
BCS, Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis
- Prerequisites: No entry requirements for this certification
- Approximate cost: USD $270

Networking

Don’t underestimate the power of networking – a majority of jobs in the industry are obtained via who you know!

Speak to hiring managers/recruiters inside or outside your organisation and express interest in taking on a business analyst role. You might not get anything out of this, but at least you are getting your name out there and making your interest known.
Speak to your friends or colleagues and find out if they know of anybody in their network looking for business analysts. You never know, they might be able to refer you to someone in their network and, there you go, you’ve created an opportunity for yourself.
Attend local or remotely hosted networking events to not only make contacts but also learn about current and emerging technology trends and topics. Some examples are:
IT meetup groups on specific topics
Your local IIBA chapter which hosts regular presentations by working business analysts or other technology leaders
Technology and business analyst conferences

And last but not least…

Do your current job well

There is no better opportunity to display your current skillset and potential by showing how well you perform in your current role. Even though you might not have a business analyst job title you might catch the interest of hiring managers in your organisation who you think you are doing a great job and have skills transferrable to a business analyst role. Managers are looking for business analyst team members who have excellent verbal and written communication skills, are adaptable and approachable, willing to learn, and have good attention to detail but can also step back and see the bigger picture.

As you can see there are more than a few ways to build a pathway to become a business analyst. Be persistent and try to create your own opportunities, you have nothing to lose!

How to Thrive as a Business Analyst in the New Normal

Written by Ananya Pani on March 24, 2021. Posted in Articles.

The Pandemic hit us suddenly and yes it came without any notice to our lives as a transient thing but became the new normal way of life.

Some of us were initially worried thinking about what lies ahead, some were shocked, some found pleasure being relieved from the daily commute, time on the road, and traffic jams.

With the COVID 19 pandemic hitting us globally, organizations have embraced remote working as the new way for 2020, and some have announced it for 2021 also.

Moving to WFH

IT industry has moved to this new model in a relatively easier way, and the transition is relatively smoother.

But for the traditional industries, it’s a big shift, and the mode of working and infrastructure needed rethinking, planning, and to be worked out.

In most countries, the pandemic hit so suddenly that it left no time to prepare for the upcoming times. Going remote isn’t an easy task for many, as we may think.

However, as it’s popularly said, every cloud has a silver lining; similarly, every challenge comes with an opportunity. It’s up to us to step up and embrace this change and take benefit of the opportunity.

Though many are happy with the new way of working for the reasons like:

The extra time gained from the commute
The better work-life balance
Increased productivity
Saving of money and resources
Lesser distractions

However, many challenges started to unfold as the new normal started sinking in, and this seemed like here to stay for some more time.

For this article, we will take a deeper look into the business analysis profession, what seemed to have worked well, the new challenges thrown, and how we can make the best of it in the new normal.

As a business analyst, one is responsible for:

Leading change and bringing new technology and products to the organization
- Gathering existing and new requirements/processes/features as part of the automation/new product
- Coming up with solutions to business problems/needs
Developing new systems/solutions to take care of any manual process / better performance / better revenue stream / more efficient process / better user experience
- Elicitation of requirements
- Modeling of requirements
- Signing off on requirements from the stakeholders
- Managing changes, if any to requirements.
- Development and implementation of the solution
- User acceptance testing
- User training

The business analysis profession is primarily involved in communication (written, verbal, visual), and the absence of face-to-face meetings brought new challenges.

Practical challenges for BAs in remote working

As part of the solutioning, requirements elicitation, user story reviews, prototyping, or any other phase of the project a BA needs to have close interaction and work with stakeholders, the tech team, the QA team, and other BAs.

Some specific challenges are:

Staying Engaged with Stakeholders

Most of these tasks were done traditionally with stakeholders using pre-dominantly following techniques such as Workshops, walk-throughs/Reviews, Brainstorming, and Observations.

Here is a list of challenges and a few things that worked for many business analysts as shared by them when we asked them – https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6687061335701778432/

Challenges most of the business analysts faced:

Getting stakeholder engagements
Getting to know the non-verbal cues
Meetings can get off track.
Getting clear communications
Getting approval and clarity on requirements
Staying updated with the status
Bonding with the team
Figuring out the way everyone’s schedule and style of working
Making everyone comfortable and be participative in the meeting
Multiple time zones and the work timings followed with the new way.

Here is a set of guidelines for business analysis professionals to work effectively and efficiently in this new way and to make the transition smooth.

Few practices that worked well for most:

Breaking the ice – to get better participation from stakeholders and team
Give some background and the solution’s objective to get everyone talking for the requirements elicitation meetings. Silence kills participation.
Having catch-up calls, one in the morning for planning and one at day end for a status update, is good to keep everyone updated.
Scheduling meeting with clear agenda well in advance.
Starting the meetings by giving a brief background of past discussions and agreements.
Spend initial 5 minutes in setting out expectations and responsibilities like who will take notes, who will take responsibility for which part, who is expected to share inputs or information, who will get sign off, etc. A RACI matrix may be of help here. Meetings with clear agenda, expectation, success criteria, ownerships, and tasks assigned to members are more effective.
Wrapping up the meetings with the major discussion points and decisions made.
Being better prepared for the meetings/requirements elicitation sessions having gone through all the previous documents, changes suggested, and the mockups/processes/documentation.
Keeping all the documents needed open in the background for the meetings
Schedule 1:1s with colleagues and mentors to get feedback, schedule 1:1s with customers to check on them.
Get stakeholders/team take accountability and responsibility to stick on to the commitments and deadlines.
Following basic rules like muting when not speaking and using the chatbox to communicate points instead of disturbing the flow
Use visuals and demos to gather better inputs or feedback. Start showing similar applications to gather/understand requirements and collect feedback instead of doing it verbally. Some popular visual/diagramming tools are
1. Visio
2. BizAgi Process Modeler
3. Zoom white Board
Use collaboration tools to be more effective, like:

Zoom
Webex
Go to meeting
Go to Webinar

Being open about being away from work/break timings. Transparency is the key; keep everyone up to date, even if it’s good or bad. In this new normal, trust keeps us going –
Stay connected with the team through IM or chat options.
Most draw a line between work and family

Many say they love the new way since they can avoid the commute and have a good cup of tea at home in the morning before starting their day.

They can avoid office distractions and have their best productive time put to work.

Some say they can have a good time with children and pets, and having them close brings their best self out

Overcoming the CHALLENGES

Maintaining Work Discipline

Few things that will help when you start as a practice/discipline:

Setting up a workspace –
- Comfortable – A work desk/table with comfortable sitting arrangements. Couch, Bean bag, a bed should be avoided.
- Clean – Keep your workspace organized and clean to have a better/ productive day.
- Organized with your daily needs – Notebooks, drawing board (if you are a visual BA), pens, markers, etc.
- Good to have a green view
Avoid noise/distraction-free environment –
- Have a workspace set up in a place that’s away from the sounds of a pet, dishes, or cooking.
- Invest in a good pair of headphones to cut down on noise for conference calls.
- Make sure you are in proper attire if you are expecting a video call.
Keep back up for power and network outage.
- Most of the smartphones can be used as a mobile hot spot as the internet back up.
Make your availability known.
- Communicate your break timings (lunch, coffee, etc.) to your team and others
- Sign out of the instant communications applications like chat, IM, etc, when taking a break.
- Ensure your availability as per your official working hours

Keep track of your tasks and plan your day.
- Keep track of your tasks and time spent.
- Plan your day at the beginning of the day
- Make your day plan known to others in the team with dependencies and support needed from the team.
- Share your day-end update with the team to ensure smooth working with the team.
Time Management
- Stick to your work timings – Remote working doesn’t mean you can start anytime you wish and end it at any time you wish.
- Be self-managed by keeping distractions to the minimum.
- Have your tasks for the day seen in front of you either as a sticky note or a day planner

Upskill to keep yourself updated –

As the famous saying of Dr. Deming goes, “Learning is not compulsory nor is survival.”

Time and again, it has been proven that upskilling and getting certified puts one at the forefront in the job market, makes one eligible for the best opportunities and promotions.

Hence please keep some time booked or marked in your calendar for learning new skills, tools, or a certification.

Organizations have realized the importance of having highly skilled and matured BAs to enhance their delivery capabilities. So, when the demand for BAs is on the rise, how do you set yourself apart in a highly competitive world? Well, the answer is certification is one of the best and independent ways of showcasing your skills.

IIBA Certifications are the most sought-after BA certifications for business analysts to excel in their careers.

If you are a BA and looking for upskilling and certification and unsure of the level of certification that you should seek, then here is a basic guide:

The beginners and newbies without any BA experience should pursue ECBA.

For professionals with 2+ years of BA, work-experience should pursue CCBA.

For professionals with 5+ years of BA, work-experience should pursue CBAP.

There are many other intangible benefits of learning and certification like

Improved confidence
Making one a trusted leader by management
A huge help in navigating the job market
Improved ability to guide and mentor team members
Ability to provide better business opportunities/decisions to stakeholders
Improved ability to lead successful change efforts
Higher productivity and better self-esteem

Handling Yourself – Physically, Mentally, and Emotionally

Exercise – Find time for exercise to keep yourself physically fit – it’s proven that exercise helps us release chemicals like endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine that boosts our sense of well-being and suppresses hormones that cause depression and anxiety.
Meditation – Helps you remain calm among stressful and hectic schedules and when things go out of your control.
Emotionally – Stay in touch with friends and immediate family members over the phone, messages, video calls to make one feel connected and emotionally secured.
Pick up hobbies that make you happy like cooking, painting, music or gardening, etc, which can be done without getting out or risking your safety.
Unwind during the weekends and try to destress yourself.
Share responsibilities at home with your partner. Teach your kids to take responsibility for keeping their room clean, picking up things after their play hours, helping you with chores like watering plants, laundry, pet care, etc.

Cut yourself from negativity.

We don’t control many things in our lives, but we certainly control the way we react or respond to it Hence, it’s important to keep the positive side up and negativity at bay, be it negative people, news, incident, or thoughts.

Focus on the IMPACT you create

See the value you bring to the table in your project.
Acknowledge the contributions you make to the stakeholders.
Value the effort saving with automation you made
Value your impact on your family
Don’t measure things with the number of unsuccessful attempts to see your resilience and persistence.

Remember that it’s not the situation that makes or breaks you; it’s how you respond to it that makes all the difference. When you stay positive, you pass on the positive energy to your team and your immediate family, and the people around you.

Your organization, team, and family need the most positive version of you NOW.